The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-04-14
The Coming Reyolu ion.


The temperance question is destined to
cause political revolution in the South.
1t will divide the white and colored vote,
and by this division the colored voter will
have a chance to cast his ballot and have
it counted as cast. Each side will see to
this. and with the whites equally divided,
there will be no tolerance of ballot box
stuifing or bpil.do2ing 1.-THE polls. In Tex
as we notice that the most prominent
Democrats in that State have taken oppo-
site sidesl Thismeans that all the voters
will be pr5tectedin their right to vote. for
on question wlsich appeals so strongly to
the emotions and to the moral seDse, de-
termined struggle will he made for success.
| When this is the case, the prejudices OF
race in politics will be made secondary and
every man legally qualified to vote will be
sustained in the exercise of that right. 1t
| will cause, also, modification OF removal
of the restrictions upon the ballot, which
exist by statute in some of the Southern
| States, enacted to disfranchise the colored
man. His vote will be cOurted and striv-
en- for by contending factions. dominated
by white men. and each will vie with the
other to see that justice is melted out to
all classes without regard to race, color or
previous condition. In South Carolina,
North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and
| Georgia the same conditions will exist and
| in Bourbon ridden Kentucky the Demo-
cratic lines will be shattered by the injec-
tion of the temperance issue. Tennessee
and Virginia will come under the same dis
turblng influence, and all along the lines Of
the solid South. the premonitions of dis
solving factions will be manifest ere the
| close of 1887.
We hail sach promise as the harbinger
of purer politics. more honest methods,
and more righteous results. The people
have become disgusted and their patience
exhausted with the injustice and barbar-
ism of the race issue. They are anxious
for change in this respect and will cheer
fully accept any honest and legitimate di-
version from the old routine of politics
which gives assurance that a higher plane
will ba observed in the conduct of cleo
tions 1t is the only way we now see for
the coored voter to have his rights recog
nlzed and respected. Once the precedent
established and the Justice of it impressed,
it will be beyond the power of any dem
agogue or debauched politician, to le.
vive the prejudices which have 80 long
controlled our political contests and
brought so much distrust upon the South
ern people. 1t would be departure and
revolution that every well wisher of tue
Southland ought to encourage, and espe-
cially every Republican for in it is the
most rational hope of securing an impair
| tial consideration of the principles and
policies of the party. Emancipated from
crystaized prejudices by reason of practi-
cal cooperation in a common cause, the
popular mind would be free to acknowl-
edge and concede the right and the duty
of every man to vote his sentiments, and
| have his ballot counted as cast Bourbon
| ism would be shelved forever, and the new
South would be the South free from the
domination of unreasoning passion and in
corrigible hate. Let the revolution come.
| 1t has in it nothing but what will contrib
ute to the p 'ace, progress, prosperity and
! happiness of the Southern people.